


Reunited on the Other Side

by aestheticallyfrogs



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Bellamy Blake & Lexa Friendship, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:54:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27452323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aestheticallyfrogs/pseuds/aestheticallyfrogs
Summary: In which the afterlife, or as Jasper said "the other side" is a real tangible place.Set after 7x13, so basically Bellamy reuniting with everyone who has died. They also see Clarke and Raven take the test and stuff.
Relationships: Abby Griffin & Clarke Griffin, Abby Griffin & Raven Reyes, Abby Griffin/Marcus Kane, Bellamy Blake & Charmaine Diyoza, Bellamy Blake & Clarke Griffin, Bellamy Blake & Gina Martin, Bellamy Blake & Jasper Jordan, Bellamy Blake & Lexa, Bellamy Blake & Lincoln, Bellamy Blake & Marcus Kane, Bellamy Blake & Monty Green, Clarke Griffin/Lexa, Jasper Jordan/Maya Vie, Josephine Lightbourne/Gabriel Santiago, Monty Green & Jasper Jordan, Monty Green/Harper McIntyre, Octavia Blake/Lincoln
Comments: 41
Kudos: 54





	1. Part 1

It was Jasper he saw first. He was sitting with his arm around a dark haired girl, and he was laughing. As he watched, the girl tipped her head back to look up at him and laughed too, open adoration clear on her face. They both glanced up when they saw him arrive, their content expressions instantly turning to shock. Jasper started halfway out of his seat.

“Bellamy?” Jasper shook his head, holding up his hand as if to ward him off. “No – no, you weren’t meant to be here so soon. What happened? Monty said you were safe.”

Bellamy’s hand drifted to his chest where he could have sworn a bullet hole had been a moment before. “I …” he stared blankly at his long dead friend. “I don’t – what is this place? Am I – am I dead?”

Jasper smiled shakily, still looking at him like he was a bomb ready to go off. “Yeah. Yeah, buddy, you’re dead.”

He closed his eyes, his fingers drifting around his non-existent death wound. There was nothing there except scarred but otherwise untouched skin.

“What happened to you?” Jasper asked again.

And just like that, some fog seemed to clear from his mind, and he lurched backwards, clutching at empty air, his breath ragged except he had no breath because he wasn’t breathing, and he was –

Dead.

He was dead.

And Clarke …

“What did I do?” he breathed, his voice sick with horror. “What did I do?” It all came flooding back at once. The mountain. The Shepard. The disciples. Doucette. For all mankind. And he’d … he had …

He doubled over, thinking he might be sick. He’d betrayed them all. A moment later Jasper’s hands were on him and he was murmuring something reassuring as he guided him to the couch, Maya – that was _Maya_ , he realised in astonishment – moving aside to make room.

“Hey, hey, easy, it’s okay, you’re dead but it’ll be okay, just relax -” His hand was a reassuring weight between his shoulder blades as Bellamy sucked in one breath be didn’t need after another as he desperately tried to sort out those last tangled seconds on Sanctum.

“Who is it?” An all too familiar voice called from out of sight, and Bellamy froze as light footsteps approached and then – “ _Bellamy?_ What is he doing here?”

Slowly, Bellamy dragged his red rimmed eyes up to look at his oldest friend. “Monty,” he whispered. He didn’t look a day older than he had before they’d gone into cryo.

Monty smiled faintly, but his eyes still held the same fearful wariness as Jaspers. He’d thought they were safe, Bellamy realised. And now he knew that they weren’t, and he was clinging to straws of information about what had happened to his son. His son, who he’d told Bellamy to protect, who had been carted away to an unknown planet with unknown dangers.

“Hey, Bellamy. What’s going on back there? Kane and Abby filled us in on some things, but – I have to know, is Jordan safe?”

Bellamy opened his mouth. Closed it. When he at last found his voice it was rough. “Yeah. Yeah, he safe. What do you mean, Kane and Abby? They’re here? Where is here? What is this place – what’s – what’s going on?”

It was Jasper who answered, and his smile pulled Bellamy straight back to a better time before all the death and chaos when they were just 100 kids from the sky who had found their way to the ground. “This, my friend, is the other side.” He pulled Bellamy into a hug, his gangly arms wrapping around his back and his head nestling into his shoulder, just like it always used to. “Looks like we met again after all.”

His hands drifted uncertainly as he hugged him back, and he tried to say something, but all that came out was a broken whisper. “I never got to say goodbye.”

Monty’s gaze softened, and he put a gentle hand on his arm. “Bellamy, I’m sorry. I know this is a lot, but we have to know what’s going on back home. Is our family okay? How did you die?”

Jasper pulled back, his brown eyes scrutinising his face. Bellamy felt his hand drift back to the invisible bullet wound right over his heart. It was such irony, he thought, that it had been the head that ended the heart after all. _So much for together_. Her words from earlier tore through him more viciously than any bullet ever could. There had been a thousand times he thought their story might end, but not like this. Never like this. “Clarke,” he said at last. “Clarke shot me.”

Monty started. Whatever he’d been expecting, this wasn’t it. “What?”

“To save Madi.” He swallowed. “She had no choice-” His words died in his throat as he saw who now stood in the doorway.

Lincoln.

“Octavia?” he asked, a world of hope in that one word. Bellamy only stared at him, feeling distinctly like he was falling from a great hight. He didn’t know what would happen when he finally hit the bottom. “Monty and Harper told me some things, Abby too, but it wasn’t … is she …” he trailed off.

“She’s not Blodreina anymore,” he managed. “She found a family, with Hope and Diyoza. She found her way out of the dark, and I think she was happy.”

Lincoln exhaled in relief, a smile breaking across his face like the first rays of dawn, the tension he hadn’t even realised was there leaving his shoulders. “She did it. I knew she would.”

“Did you say Diyoza?” Monty interrupted. “Convict, mass murderer, Diyoza? Who, last I checked, was Octavia’s enemy?”

“Well,” drawled a voice, and Charmain Diyoza stepped out from behind Lincoln, her grungy hair pulled back in a low ponytail. “That isn’t the nicest way to be remembered, although I suppose it’s only fair.” She tilted her head to look up at Lincoln. “Hi. Octavia told me a lot about you.”

Bellamy felt his brain lagging like an old computer. “Wait. No. No, you can’t be here. You _can’t_ be dead.”

Lincoln looked between them. “So, it looks like you both left her alone again.”

Bellamy closed his eyes, flinching away from the verbal slap. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, because he was right. He’d failed her. He’d failed all of them, and now he could never make it right.

“If it weren’t for me, she and Hope would both be dead. You’re welcome.” Diyoza sat down on the couch like she’d owned it her whole life. Maya edged away from her ever so slightly, but Bellamy was no longer paying attention to them.

Instead he looked past them to the slight, dark haired girl in full body armour that had appeared at Lincoln’s side, her hair woven into intricate braids and her face streaked with warpaint. “Commander.”

Lexa raised her chin in acknowledgment. “Bellamy. I’m sorry Clarke shot you. I know how much you meant to each other.”

Bellamy only stared at her. If his heart still beat it would be pounding, and for a moment he was back in the throne room with a book in his hands, filled with Madi’s careful drawings. “Madi,” he murmured.

“Is safe on Earth,” Lexa confirmed. “For now. When Raven destroyed the flame part of it’s consciousness jumped into her. She hasn’t realised that the memories she’s seeing are anything but normal, and the connection isn’t strong enough for me to tell her. It’s just flashes, whenever either of us are feeling anything particularly strongly. However, she does have the information needed to control the stones, which Cadogan would kill her to attain.” She inclined her head. “That’s why Clarke killed you when it became clear you’d sell her out.”

Bellamy ducked his head, swallowing past the lump in his throat. His eyes were burning. “I …”

Lexa watched him scrutinous with pine green eyes, then hesitantly walked over and wrapped her strong arms around him. “That wasn’t you, Bellamy,” she said, her voice cool and steady in his ear.

He could only nod, hugging her back. He thought he could finally see why his friend had loved this woman so fiercely.

“Well, that was certainly … illuminating,” Monty said as she stepped away. 

“She did what she had to do,” Bellamy said, glancing at Lexa. “That’s why we loved her.”

“Yes, Clarke was always good at making impossible choices,” Maya said, her voice bright. Jasper wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder, shooting Bellamy a glare.

“I’m sorry, Maya.” It wasn’t enough. It never would be, but he didn’t know what else to say.

“What happened in Mount Weather was as much on me as it was on Clarke,” Lexa stated plainly. “The only difference is that I had no honour, and she had no choice.” At Bellamy’s enquiring look, she shrugged. “Her words, not mine.”

Despite himself, Bellamy smiled. “That sounds like Clarke.”

“She also told me that if I wanted the power of Wanheda to kill her, otherwise I could go float myself.”

“She told me to go float myself, too. I deserved it.”

“So did I.”

Maya was silent, clearly disagreeing. Lexa looked at her steadily for a moment before realising nothing else was forthcoming, and turned back to Bellamy. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Indra, have you?”

“I don’t – I think she’s okay,” Bellamy glanced between them, realising he didn’t know nearly enough about the wellbeing of their loved ones. He’d been too caught up in the Shepard, in that awful, stupid, sketchbook.

“She will be.” Lexa nodded, as if to confirming it to be true. “She’s tough.”

The conversation was pushed away as someone else came barrelling through the door, launching themselves directly in Bellamy’s arms and wrapping their arms around his neck. His arms came around them instinctively. “Harper.” For what felt like the billionth time that day his voice was almost too choked to be distinguishable.

She nodded. “It’s really good to see you, Bellamy.” With difficulty she detangled herself and went to stand by Monty, who wrapped an arm around her.

Jasper spoke up. “Yeah. Sorry if our initial reaction didn’t scream joy, we were just worried. I missed you.”

Bellamy ducked his head, unable to hide his smile. “I missed you too.”

“I’m proud of you, son,” Kane said from over her shoulder. He was holding Abby’s hand and smiling genially. Bellamy felt the tears slip down his cheeks as his smile wobbled.

“You’ve done well, Bellamy.” Gina, her head tilted slightly to the side, a small smile on her face.

One by one, they crowded into the room. His mother. Finn. One by one, they smiled at him, offered greeting or enquiries about their friends and family, hugged him. One by one, he saw them all again. Bellamy’s beloved dead.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel arrives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so this is kinda short, sorry

“We had our people, and we were shut in one of the rooms in the palace. Jordan and Miller were still out of it, but we were safe. Gabriel said we had to go back to the tavern and get his people out too. I didn’t want to. But Octavia -” his eyes burned, and he looked directly at Lincoln as he said it, - “Octavia said we couldn’t let these people die. She said that if we could save innocent lives, we should.”

“My brave girl,” Aurora whispered. She reached out to put a hand on his arm. “You did well with her, Bellamy.”

“Even though I couldn’t protect her from becoming Blodreina?”

“Kane was right when he said you did everything you could for her.”

Bellamy didn’t quite believe it, but he nodded anyway. “It was Diyoza who saved her,” he said, nodding towards the woman sprawled on the couch with her eyes shut.

At her name, Diyoza looked up. “I spent ten years with Octavia on Skyring. She spent six of them fighting to get back to you, so she could tell you she understood everything you did for her. But believe me when I say that Octavia saved herself.”

“Of course she did,” Lincoln said. “Did you manage to save the non-believers?”

“We saved who could be saved,” said an all too familiar voice, and Bellamy jerked upright.

He was wearing the loose tan shirt he recognised from when he’s been Xavier, and the white patch of hair above his forehead was all too familiar. “Gabriel?” Bellamy breathed.

“Yes.” He looked around him with interest. “This is it, then? This is where you go once you die?”

“Yeah,” Bellamy said shakily. “What happened to you?”

“I died. I was stabbed.” Gabriel gestured to his abdomen. “Many times.”

“What about Hope?” Diyoza demanded. “Is she safe?”

“She was when I died.”

Bellamy got up and approached him, examining his face carefully. “You died. How are you so calm about that?”

Gabriel smiled. “When you have lived as long as I have, death stops being something so terrifying. I was curious about what happened after.” He gestured around him. “I never guessed it would be anything like this.”

“What about Jordan?” Monty interrupted. He was holding Harper’s hand so hard his knuckles had gone white.

“You’re his parents, right?”

“Yes. Is he happy?”

“He seems to be, with Hope. They make a cute couple.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Diyoza interrupted from the couch. “My daughter has a boyfriend. No. No way, she’s too young.”

“She’s 25 now,” Gabriel felt inclined to put in.

“My sons dating the terrorist’s kid?”

“Hey.” Harper nudged Monty lightly with her elbow. “Don’t be close minded.”

Monty smiled. “I’m not. My family doesn’t exactly have a clean criminal record. Just surprised, that’s all. As long as he’s happy, that’s enough for me.”

“And if he hurts her, I’m fixing her up with Echo. I watched them train together, and I’m sorry but platonic my ass.”

“You’re dead,” Lexa reminded her. “You can’t fix anyone up with anyone.”

Gabriel eyed her curiously. “You’re one of the commanders that was in the Flame, right? Becca Franco’s last creation before she died?”

Lexa dipped her head in acknowledgment.

“Fascinating,” Gabriel said. He gave her a brief once over and then turned to the others. “I’m looking for -”

“Me,” said a voice, and they all whipped around. Josephine Lightbourne stood in the doorway, one hand absently fiddling with her blonde curls, and a small smile on her face. She looked past the others like they weren’t there, her eyes instead fixed upon Gabriel. “He’s looking for me. Hello again, my love.”

Even from there Bellamy heard his breath hitch as he inclined his head. “Josephine.”

She smiled wider, dropping her hands. “God, you say my name so sexy. I missed you.” The room was silent, which seemed to amuse her. “Well, aren’t you going to tell us how you finally died, Old Man?”

He raised his chin. “Sheidheda stabbed me. I was trying to protect Madi. When I died, she was safe, but I don’t know how long that’ll last. I did everything I could for her.”

“I thought Sheidheda was dead. I thought Indra stabbed him and left him to die,” Bellamy interrupted.

“No. Apparently not. He was taken by the disciples.”

Bellamy breathed out heavily. “The sketchbook. Sheidheda would have known who had drawn it, and the Shepard would have figured out that Madi had the memory that contained the secret to the Stones.” He closed his eyes, burying his head in hands. “I thought she was safe. I thought when Clarke killed me it meant she would be safe.”

Monty put his hand on his shoulder and leaned his weight against him, a gesture of support long familiar from their time on the ring and afterwards.

“I have no idea who you guys are talking about,” Josephine said with her usual irreverence. “But 246 years? That’s not a bad life, Gabriel.”

Gabriel smiled. “No. No, it wasn’t. I died doing something good and surrounded by the people I care about, which is all I ever wanted.”

Josephine nodded, the corner of her mouth quirking up in a rare genuine smile. “It's not so bad here. Not as good as being alive, but not horrible. It’s nice to have everyone together again.”

“And this time you didn’t have to murder any of your followers in order for that to happen,” Lexa said coldly.

Josephine frowned at her. “Well that isn’t the nicest way to say hello.”

“You’re the one who killed Clarke.”

“Well, it clearly didn’t work very well, did it? Or is she here too?” She twisted her hair through her fingers, a small smile still on her face. “And you’re Lexa.” She tilted her head conspiratorially. “I saw you in Clarke’s Mindspace. She thinks about you a lot.”

Lexa stared at her, unimpressed. Josephine only laughed and turned back to Gabriel. “Well you lot certainly know how to put a damper on a party.” She grabbed his hand. “What do you say we go find somewhere quieter?”

Gabriel nodded. “You and I have a lot to discuss.”

“Let’s start with how you killed me.” The two of them left, hand in hand, leaving the others staring after them in confusion.

“Well that certainly seems like a complicated relationship if ever I saw one,” Jasper said at last.

Bellamy smiled, dragging a hand through his hair. “Understatement of the year.”

“Wait so we’re just gonna ignore the fact that our son is trapped in a bunker that is infiltrated with mass murderers who just killed Gabriel?” Monty demanded, sounding somewhat panicked.

“Of course not. What can we do from here? You’ve been dead for a long time, surely you must have figured out a way to contact the living?”

“There is no way,” said Lexa. “I’ve tried everything, as have the commanders before me.”

“So what? We just give up? We accept there’s nothing we can do to help them?” Bellamy looked from one face to another, each set with grim resignation. He began to shake his head. “Seriously? These my people we’re talking about. I can’t just let them die.”

“They’re my people too,” said Harper. “My boy is down there; do you think I don’t want to help him? But we can’t.”

“So you’re telling me we just let them die?”

“If they were dying down there we would have seen more. Right now there is just Gabriel. Clarke and Octavia and the others are all together now. I don’t like it any more than you do, but we have to trust that they can look after themselves,” said Lincoln.

“So we do nothing,” Bellamy asked, disbelieving.

“We wait. We hope. That is all we can do.” 


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> bellamy and lexa friendship (ik that'd never happen in canon but this is what fanfiction is for i'm way tired of bellarke vs clexa let me have this)  
> everyone watches clarke take the test

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Time was meaningless, after all, when you had eternity. It didn’t feel like at all long, but then again it might have been. Nobody else had died. He had taken to spending much of his time with Lexa, wandering the woods. Her presence was comforting, in that they didn’t know each other well enough in life for there to be any expectations from either party. One of the only things, he realised, that he had in common with her was Clarke and the little girl she loved so dearly.

They joked about is, sometimes, how everyone in their family had so quickly adopted Madi as their own. Clarke was the mom. Bellamy and Lexa argued playfully about who had the spot as other mom/dad.

“She has my hair,” Lexa had said, gesturing to her wavy brown braids. “We look the same.”

“We have the same hair, Lexa,” he’d pointed out, and she’d laughed.

She’d been amused to find out even Indra had taken on the role as ‘aunty’ and was now one of Madi’s prime defenders, remarking on the warriors stilted and awkward shows of affection towards her Natblida novitiates. She mentioned them often, Aden especially, and Bellamy gathered that they, along with Anya, were who she’d spent most of her afterlife with.

Now the two of them were sitting in a clearing in the forest, majestic pine trees towering on either side. Bellamy’s back was against a trunk, and Lexa was next to him, her eyes closed, and her head tipped back.

“I never got to tell her I loved her,” he said into the comfortable silence. “Clarke, I mean. I never got to tell her I loved her.”

Lexa leaned her head against his shoulder. “I know. Neither did I.”

“She told you, though.”

“Yes. In the City of Light. I told her I’d always be with her.”

“I think she needed to hear that more, anyway. Your death was hard for her, Lexa. She grieved for a long time. She still is grieving. And she knows you love her.” He paused, struggling for words. “Do you think she knows I do?”

Lexa smiled. “I know she does. And I know you won’t ask me this, but I’m going to tell you anyway: yes, she loved you too.”

“She called me ‘best friend’.”

“And you were. But is that really all she was to you?”

“No.”

“Exactly.” Lexa sighed, running a hand through her hair. Her appearance had shifted, but he wasn’t sure how. He guessed it was something to do with how comfortable she felt. Her hair was still braided, but her armour was more everyday than battle ready, and her warpaint was gone. He himself was back in his old guard jacket, comforting in its familiarity. “I’m not saying I know how or in what way she loves you - I don’t think she even knows herself - but she did.”

He nodded, tipping his head back to look up at the sky, such as it was. “I loved Echo. I really did. She was strong and brave and beautiful, but somehow I couldn’t help myself from loving Clarke too.” He paused. “You and her, though … you were poetry.” He sketched a heart in the pine needles with his finger. “The princess of the sky and the commander of the ground.”

Lexa smiled. “Aden said that too.”

“Smart kid.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could the sky in front of them opened up, a void stretching as far as the eye could see, filled with drifting purple light. Directly in front of them was a worn wooden pier, currently deserted.

In a heartbeat, Bellamy was on his feet reaching for weapons that weren’t there. “What is this, what’s happening?” he demanded of Lexa, unsurprised that she had reacted just as quickly.

“I don’t know,” she said, squinting into the sudden light. “In all the years I’ve been dead, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

On one end of the pier, blinding light swelled and Cadogan stepped through, still in his pure white robes. Bellamy fought the urge to be sick. Those robes were the reason he’d died alone and hated on a cold tiled floor. “The Shepherd,” he breathed. “What?”

He didn’t expect an answer and Lexa didn’t offer one. Instead her eyes were fixed on the man as he walked slowly along the pier, his hands clasped in front of him as he craned his neck to look around.

Another flash of light and a girl appeared, leaning casually against the railing, her dark curls brushed over one shoulder. _“What took you so long?”_

Lexa blinked, her eyes narrowing. “That’s Callie Cadogan. I saw her in the flame.” She glanced up at Bellamy. “What is this?”

Realisation hit him like a stack of bricks. “This is the test. God, Lexa – he must have gotten the codes, he’s taking the test that decides the fate of the entire human race. If he passes, they transcend.”

“And if he fails?”

“Total destruction,” Bellamy whispered. “They’ll be wiped out entirely. Turned into ice crystals. They won't even be able to come here, they’ll be gone.”

Lexa was quiet for a moment, taking it in. Her face was that of a general long used to bad news. Without noticing, warpaint had begun to creep back across her features. “Then let’s better hope he passes.”

He shook his head desperately, thinking back to the things Clarke had told him back when they fought on Bardo. “He won’t, he -”

Monty and Jasper came running up to them, and Bellamy reached out an instinctive hand to catch Jasper before he stumbled a step too far. The younger boy nodded his thanks, while Monty demanded somewhat urgently, “It’s happening, isn’t it? This is their chance to take the next step?”

Bellamy didn’t question how they knew this, only nodded. The footsteps behind him were too heavy to belong to anyone but Lincoln, so he didn’t bother turning a second time as he and Abby joined them. Monty’s mouth was wide open as he gaped at the sight unfolding in front of them.

 _“This is who you chose. We most often take the form of the subject’s greatest teacher. Or the source of their greatest failure. In the rarer, emotion driven species such as your own, it can be their greatest love,”_ the being who wasn’t Callie said, going on to explain how the test would work.

Jasper glanced frantically between them. “How – how can we stop it?”

“We can’t,” Abby said. “We’re dead. We can’t do anything, but if my theories are correct if he fails, we’ll be gone too.”

Jasper nodded slowly. “So no pressure, then.” He sounded awed.

 _“… and yet you have attempted to erase it in pursuit of this moment. Why?”_ The judge enquired, her head tilted softly to the side.

Bellamy flinched as the bullet tore through Cadogan’s skull, the blood splattering across the judge’s ethereal face. The noise Lexa made from beside him wasn’t human.

“Clarke …” Abby breathed, staring at her daughter as she stepped up beside Cadogan, a gun clasped in her white-knuckled hand.

Cadogan seemed to fall in slow motion as Clarke fired again and again and again, the blood stark as it bloomed against the white robe. Clarke’s face was blank with lethal fury as she turned to the judge, ignoring his body drifting to ash on the floor by her feet. There was nothing in the girl that stood in front of them now that he could connect to the girl who sat with him on the forest floor all those years ago and promised him he wasn’t a monster. Judging by Lexa’s expression, she was thinking the same.

 _“Pencils down,”_ Clarke said, and the judge melted out of existence just as Cadogan had.

He watched as she exhaled, her shoulders curling in on themselves as she crumpled, sitting down heavily on one of the benches. There was a black smudge on her cheek that looked like nightblood.

It was like being shot all over again. What could have gone so badly wrong that could have reduced his usually unshakable friend into this? Despite her despondency, Bellamy couldn’t help but drink in her features one last time, memorising the contours of her face. He wished he could go to her, so that they could fight this together like they always had.

He glanced over at Abby. A silent tear was making its way down her face as she stared at her daughter, her mouth slightly open.

“What now?” Lincoln ventured. “She killed him. Does that mean the test is over? It can go back to how it was?”

Despite the large group of friends and family that had gathered around them to watch this final trial, nobody had an answer to offer him.

On the pier, Clarke stood up and began to pace, unable to stay still. _“Why am I still here?”_ she wondered aloud, and Bellamy heard Lexa’s rushed exhale next to him at hearing her girlfriends voice again for the first time in so long.

_“You know why.”_

The air seemed to go impossibly taut as Clarke turned, her mouth falling open in barely repressed hope and shock. _“Lexa,”_ she breathed, and then she was running, launching herself into the warrior’s arms and burying her face in her shoulder, breathing in the warm scent of her hair.

_Greatest Love._

Beside him, the real Lexa lurched backwards, almost falling before she regained her balance, her hand coming up to clutch at her throat. “It’s me,” she rasped.

Bellamy reached out to put a steadying hand on her shoulder. “We see.”

“No – no, you don’t understand. It’s _me._ I can feel them – they can feel it all, they _know_ , Bellamy, they can feel us, feel everything.” The Commander’s hands clasped either side of her head as she sank to her knees, her eyes wide. Bellamy didn’t know what else to do but follow her down, unable to tear his gaze away from the woman and the god embracing on the worn and battered pier.

“ _I’m not her, Clarke,”_ the judge said at last, her voice as even and smooth as honey.

 _“I know,”_ Clarke choked out.

But she didn’t let go, not yet. The judge indulged her for the minute it took for Clarke to find the strength to disentangle herself.

The way she looked at the god who wore Lexa’s form tore right through Bellamy’s defences, leaving him raw and bare. Crumpled next to him, Lexa didn’t look much better. Her breathing was ragged, and he sensed his arm around her shoulder was the only thing stopping her from keeling over. Those were tears spilling down her cheeks, he realised with astonishment. It hadn’t occurred to him that the ruthless Commander of the Thirteen Clans could cry.

 _“The test isn’t over?”_ Clarke asked, her eyes shining with unshed tears that looked like fallen stars, reflecting the light of the purple galaxy that drifted around them.

 _“No,”_ the judge said. _“I’m sorry, we can’t stop what’s been set in motion. Your species must now be judged, through you.”_ The logical side of Bellamy figured that leaving a clearly grief-stricken Wanheda as the tipping point of humanity wasn’t the best idea, but this was Clarke; if she couldn’t do it, nobody could.

She – They, the judge – walked over to the bloodstain still visible on the wooden boards and knelt, staring down at it like it could give the answers she sought. _“This man was unarmed. No threat to you, and yet you killed him. Why?”_

Clarke moved to stand behind her. There were a lot of things in her face right then, but remorse wasn’t one of them. “ _He killed my daughter.”_

No.

_No._

_Not Madi._

The words rippled through him, upending everything he’d thought he’d known about this encounter.

Madi had been the best of them. She was a _kid._ And the Shephard, the man he’d spent the days leading up to his death worshipping, had killed her.

“No,” Abby whispered from his other side. In his peripheral vision he saw Kane step up to her side and slide a hand around her waist. She leaned into him.

 _“Is Madi dead?”_ the detachment with which they spoke the words set Bellamy’s skin crawling.

_“No. But she will be, because of him.”_

_“So your need for revenge is more important than the fate of the entire human race?”_

“Yes,” he muttered. He wanted to be able to condemn Clarke for her actions, but he knew that had it been Octavia he’d have done the same.

Clarke shook her head slowly. _“It’s not revenge. It’s justice.”_

 _"Clarke ..._ _kom blumon on noda tygon sam wa_ _laik,_ " the Judge turned to look Clarke directly in the eyes as she finished, _"jus drein jus daun."_

"A rose by any other name is still blood must have blood," Lincoln translated in a whisper. "What does that mean?"

"It's Shakespeare," Abby said. "Romeo and Juliet."

"Romantic," Jasper muttered.

"God me has mad game, so at least they got that part right," Lexa mumbled shakily from the ground next to Bellamy.

He huffed a laugh. "That so?"

"Bet."

 _"You don't know my pain,"_ Clarke said.

The Judge stepped closer. _"You're wrong. During the test, I sense every part of you. I'm feeling your pain right now."_

 _"Really?"_ Clarke advanced slowly. _"Then feel me holding Lexa, as she dies. Feel me seeing someone else wear my mother's face."_

"Baby ..." Abby breathed, reaching out a trembling hand towards her daughter before letting it fall limply to her side.

 _"Feel me murder my best friend to save my child, only to have her die anyway. Feel that."_ Clarke spat out the last words like a curse.

 _"You suffer, and inflict suffering on others. Pain begets pain."_ Clarke turned away, tears streaking down her face. _"That's not justice, Clarke. You say you do these things to protect your people, but you are all one people. That much Cadogan had right."_

Clarke's face worked, and Monty mumbled a soft curse next to him. _"He created a world without love, to get to you. He killed my child, to get to you."_ Clarke was near shouting now. _"Have you ever considered that you're the problem?"_

 _"_ Fuck," someone said from behind him. "Is she ...?"

"Of course she is. She's Clarke," said Roan, the rough burn of his voice surprisingly calm and tinged with amusement.

 _"How dare you judge me, when you annihilate entire species because they don't live up to your ideals? Have I pulled the lever to commit genocide? Yes, I have. And did love make me do this? You're damn right it did! But what's your excuse? You play games with people, and call yourselves higher beings, but you are no better than the murderers I've killed, and you are_ _no better than me!"_

The judge who up until that point had been watching her impassively spoke at last. _"I am sorry for all that you have lost, for it is so much. But if you are humanity, then I'm afraid humanity is not worthy of taking the next step."_

Clarke bowed her head, tears slipping free, and it was a look so desolate and hopeless that he wanted to scream. Next to him, he could feel the real Lexa shaking. He tightened his hold on her to stop them both from falling, tears flowing freely down his own face as well.

 _"It has been decided,"_ the Judge said, and Clarke raised her face to hear the verdict. _"Yu gonplei ste odon."_

The Judge vanished in a blinding flash of light, leaving Clarke alone, staring at the spot where she had vanished.

"Is-is that it?" Kane demanded, from where he stood next to Abby. "It's over? They get wiped out?"

"I don't know."

"Look," Monty interrupted. "The fog between here and life has lifted. We can see them now, and ... and it looks like they're preparing for war."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't ask me the technicalities of how this "other side" or the test shit works because i don't know this is mostly self indulgent twaddle because i don't want to say goodbye to my characters


	4. Part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its late but it's here you're welcome

What they saw could only be described as layers, Bellamy reflected. Layers upon layers of reality, mapping and overlapping in a dazzling tapestry of life. He could see the mountain, the cave in which he had spent months in with Doucette, but he could also see a waving pine forest, far away back on Earth. He didn’t care about any of that, though. All that mattered was the dark haired girl in the forests of Bardo, familiar warpaint daubed over her features.

He hadn’t seen that design himself in over seven years, but he’d never stopped seeing it in his dreams.

“Skairipa,” a vaguely familiar voice murmured from next to him, and Bellamy glanced over. He was still crumpled on the ground with Lexa, so he had to crane his head to look up.

The male was tall, with dark shoulder length hair and a line of dotted tattoos going from his brow to his forehead. There was another man next to him, so similar in appearance he could only be is brother. Bellamy blinked. “Ilian?”

He nodded. “It’s good to see Octavia is alright. She looks freer than she did when I knew her.”

“Thank you for saving her life,” Lincoln said, dipping his head towards Ilian. Then he looked back at Octavia and his breath hitched, his hand drifting to his chest. “Is that …?”

“Your tattoo,” Bellamy confirmed. “She wore it when she united the clans before Praimfaya too.”

Lincoln closed his eyes, tears slipping down his cheeks as he cradled his hands to his chest. Lexa uncoiled to her feet with the grace of the trained warrior he knew she was, and placed a slender hand on Lincolns shoulder. Bellamy stood up too, his eyes still fixed on his sister and their people, racing towards the battlefield that stood on the brink of a war.

“Look,” Abby said, drawing his attention back to the Stone Room. “She’s left the pier.”

A white clad body tumbled out after her, and Raven, dressed in the bulky Bardoan armour, stared it in apprehension. “ _Clarke? Oh no, that can’t be good.”_

Clarkes eye flicked from the body to her friend, and she turned away, her shoulders curling on themselves as she strode towards the door. _“What have I done?”_

_“Clarke, wait. Did you take the test? Tell me what happened.”_

_“I failed. It should have been you, not me. They should have picked you first.”_

_“So that’s it?”_ Raven demanded. _“We don’t Transend, it - we’re wiped out? It’s over?”_

Clarke nodded slowly, looking crushed.

_“Well, can we change their minds?”_

_“I don’t know. I need to be with Madi. There’s not much time.”_

_“Clarke wait -”_ Raven started after her, but Clarke was already gone, rushing through the once sterile white corridors that were now littered with blood and corpses. Behind her, the Portal began to glow red, and the mechanic turned towards it, her eyes narrowing with the focus that he’d seen on her face so many times before.

She reached out a hand, muttering something under her breath as the light grew to surround her.

Time and life warped, the images that were spread in front of them bending and shifting. Bellamy was relatively sure the only think keeping him upright was Kane’s steady hand on his back. Somewhere close by Jasper muttered a curse.

When the layers of reality cleared again, Raven was standing in a windowed room overlooking the galaxy. He recognised it instantly. He’d lived there for over twenty years, after all. Somehow, Raven was back on the Ark.

 _“No way,”_ Raven murmured, blinking at her surroundings. _“Wait, where’s earth?”_

 _“About 42 billion light years away.”_ The voice was serene and cold, but Raven seemed to recognise it instantly. Her face lit up as she turned, lurching forwards as if she intended to throw her arms around her the way Clarke had, but she stopped short, intelligent dark eyes scanning the newcomer.

 _“You read our thoughts, and take the form of someone we love.”_ Bellamy wondered if he’d been taking the test, who it would have appeared as for him. The obvious choice would be Octavia, but if it only appeared as someone they had lost … his mother, perhaps? Monty? For most of his other friends he thought it would be obvious. Clarke had seen Lexa. Jasper would see Maya. Monty would see Jasper. His sister would see Lincoln. But what about him? He’d lost too many loved ones over the years to be able to pin it down onto one person.

The being that wasn’t quite Abby nodded. _“Very good. Yours is an interesting choice. Not your real mother, yet her opinion of you mattered even more. You fear her judgement.”_

Raven swallowed, her eyes darting around the room like they always did when someone mentioned her mother. Bellamy wanted to kill the Judge for that alone. For making his friend look like that. Then she pulled on every piece of Raven Reyes bravado he’d ever seen her use throughout the years as she said nonchalantly, _“I’m not here to talk about me.”_

 _“Why_ are _you here? The test is over, as you know, Clarke failed.”_

 _“How can that be?”_ Raven demanded. _“Clarke sacrificed everything for us so that we didn’t have to. She gave up her soul so that she could keep ours.”_

Bellamy felt a fierce surge of pride towards the mechanic. Clarke might not have her mother or him or Madi or Lexa anymore, but at least their friends finally saw everything she’d done for them. He chanced a look at Abby, who looked thoroughly bludgeoned to see herself with Raven. Her lips were moving, but Bellamy couldn’t hear what she was saying.

 _“She committed atrocities,”_ the Judge said calmly.

_“She was trying to save us.”_

_“She doomed you. I’m sorry.”_

_“Are you? Because to me it looks like you can’t feel anything. Have we made mistakes? Yes. Clarke, me, all of us, but we were just trying to survive. I’m not saying we’re ready now. If you don’t want us to join you, fine, but at least let us live. Keep trying to do better, we will. We have.”_

Bellamy glanced to Monty, who was watching the scene unfold with wide eyes. He caught Bellamy’s eyes, and mouthed two words: _Do better._

“We tried, Monty,” Bellamy whispered. “We all tried. But then they came for Clarke, and …”

The other boy nodded, understanding. He reached out a hand, and Bellamy took it gratefully, squeezing it hard.

But back on the Ark, the judge looked thoroughly unimpressed. _“You say you have, yet even now you are poised on the brink of self-extermination. Look.”_

Space bent again, and now they were on the artificial field that spread out in front of the Bardoan compound, the air alight with battle cries as the opposing armies faced each other.

“Indra?” Lexa whispered, squinting to get a better look at the dark skinned woman leading Wonkru’s forces. “What are they doing?”

“And how the hell did they rope my Eligius Prisoners into this?” Diyoza demanded, gesturing to the cluster around the sonic cannons. Then she blinked, starting forwards. “Hope?”

Only Finn’s hand on her arm yanking her back stopped her from falling over the edge. “Stop. You can’t do anything from here.”

She turned to him like she didn’t understand how he could have the audacity to even speak to her. “That’s my daughter down there, kid. At the front lines of what is about to become a battlefield.”

“We don’t know that,” said Monty, ever the optimist. “Raven could find a way.”

“How?” Diyoza asked, gesturing to the armies. “I’ve been to war and back enough times to know how this is gonna end. Your son’s down there too, Monty, not worried he’s about to get blown apart or crystallised? I’ve been crystallised. It’s not a nice way to die.”

Finn cut in as Monty opened his mouth to respond. “We all have people we love down there.” His gaze lingered on the mechanic on the plain and the blonde woman still racing through the compound. “We all know what there is to lose. But the fact remains if you step of that Rift you will become nothing.”

His hand was still on the colonel’s arm, and she was looking inclined to break it. Fortunately, Harper was smart enough to step in, gently pushing Finn out of the way. “Lexa, you said the past commanders had all searched for a way to master death. Are you sure there’s no way to step in?”

“Yes. Someone would have found it by now. I’m sorry, but this is out of our hands.”

On the battlefield, the Judge was speaking again. _“… They will fight, Raven, like they always do.”_

_“You can’t possibly know that.”_

Someone uttered a soft curse behind him. It was Ilian, reaching out a trembling hand to point at the man hidden the foliage between the opposing armies. Bellamy followed his gesture and was inclined to curse as well.

Raven’s eyes widened as she whipped around, but it was too late. _“Let the games begin,”_ Sheidheda growled, lifting the gun to his shoulder.

 _“Stop!”_ Raven yelled, running towards him. _“What the hell are you doing?”_

The Judge looked almost amused. _“They can’t see or hear you. You can’t stop this. No one can.”_

The first shots was fired, the familiar ratter-tat-tat of gunfire echoing through thousands of Bellamy’s memories. They hit the sandbags, and at the fragile peace that had hovered over Bardo and Wonkru shattered like glass.

He looked desperately at his sister, racing through the woods. She wasn’t going to be quick enough. “Come on, O,” he murmured. “Come on.”

Octavia thundered to a stop at the edge of the clearing. _“Levitt, slow down!”_ She shouted at her companion, but he didn’t listen, jogging onto the battlefield with his hands in the air.

_“Don’t shoot!”_

“Don’t put down the gun, you useless podge,” Diyoza hissed. Levitt put down the gun.

Indra lifted her sword in the air. _“Hold!”_

Levitt’s pure white garb looked horribly out of place on the battlefield, but he kept moving, his empty hands extended to both sides. _“Listen to me, this is not the last war! We don’t achieve transcendence through violence. Cadogan was wrong. We’re being tested right now, all of us!”_

 _“You were saying?”_ asked Raven, looking incredibly pleased with herself.

“How much sway does this guy have?” asked Jasper. “I don’t think Sheidheda’s gonna go down easy.”

 _“Put down your weapons,”_ Levitt continued. _“We can do better than our ancestors.”_

 _“Nonsense,”_ Sheidheda snarled. _“History is written by the victors. Let’s try this again.”_

He fired, and white bloomed across the front of Levitt’s robes. The deciples returned fire, and the first of Wonkru fell. Whatever Indra was screaming wasn’t enough to stop the bloodshed, although he hadn’t really expected it to be. It was all happening billions of miles away, but Bellamy could have sword he smelt the gunpowder and smoke.

And then his sister was sprinting onto the battlefield, gunfire booming all around her as she raced for the fallen disciple. _“Indra, cover me!”_

 _“Fire!”_ Indra boomed. Hope was screaming, Jordan forcefully holding her back from running to her aunt. Echo took a bullet to the side but kept running, helping Octavia haul Levitt to his feet. Between them they dragged him off the battlefield, setting him down on the floor of the artificial forest. Jordan lost his grip on Hope and she vanished after her family.

_“Echo, you were hit! What the hell are you doing?”_

Echo’s breathing was laboured. _“I lost Bellamy. I will not lose his sister.”_

 _“So you see_ , _”_ the Judge said conversationally to Raven, strolling through the carnage as if they were simply on a morning walk. _“Despite the beauty human beings are capable of, you can’t break free of the cycle of violence.”_ In the corner of his eye Bellamy vaguely realised that Clarke had reached Madi. He couldn’t rip his focus away from his sister long enough to gather any more than that _._

 _“Aunty O!”_ Hope screamed, but dropped to her knees beside Echo. All the tension seemed to leak out of Echo at the sight of her, and if the situation hadn’t been so dire he would have smiled at Echo finding love again.

 _“You have to stop the war,”_ Levitt gasped, both his hands and Octavia’s clenched around his wound. He knew already that there was too much blood. But his sister, stubborn and brave, wouldn’t give up on him that easily.

 _“I’ve got this,”_ Jordan said, crashing down next to them. _“Stop the war.”_

Bellamy watched as that new responsibility settled over his sister’s shoulders as she realised what they all expected of her. He glanced up at Abby, but she wasn’t paying attention to anything other than her daughter, whose head was resting on Madi’s shoulder as she whispered something.

_“This is who you are. That’s why you failed the test. It’s time for us to go, Raven. The end of the human race is here.”_

“You can do this, Octavia,” Lincoln said.

 _“You can do this,”_ Levitt echoed, and Octavia let go of him and got to her feet.

 _“Jordan, Hope,”_ she ordered. _“Don’t let them die. The dead don’t transcend!”_

“She’ll be slaughtered,” said Jasper frantically.

“No, she won’t,” replied Lincoln.

 _“Indra!”_ she called from the side lines _. “Indra, hold your fire!”_

Indra looked at her wildly, but whatever she saw in her second’s face must have been enough _. “Hold yon tip flay op! Hold yon tip flay op!”_ Wonkru’s soldiers looked to her in confusion.

 _“Indra’s not in command here,”_ Sheidheda roared, scrambling down the bluff, flanked by Sangedakru. _“I am! And I say, jus drein jus daun! Jus drein jus daun! Jus drein jus daun!”_

The chant rose throughout Wonkru, and Bellamy’s heart sank. He’d seen this before.

“Jesus Christ,” Roan groaned. “Think for yourselves. Azgeda would never follow this garbage.”

“No,” retorted Anya. “Azgeda’s full of blindly loyal morons. _Trikru_ would never follow this, and they aren’t, they’re listening to Indra.”

“I think my Echo is a perfect example of Azgeda’s individuality thanks, just look at her.”

“Shut up,” Lexa told them.

On the field weapons were fired with renewed force, shrieks and screams of fallen soldiers rending the air. Sheidheda was yelling battle plans, prowling around the outskirts of the gun’s range.

 _“Kom frag em op. Ona ai ..”_ He paused as he saw Indra, blocking the path, an enormous sonic canon grasped in her hand.

 _“Gon ai nomon,”_ she said, and blasted him sky high _._ Anya and Lexa both cheered. Indra dumped the sonic canon on a frazzled looking Eligius prisoner. The Bardoans recoiled in shock.

 _“Enough!”_ Octavia seized her moment, striding out onto the middle of the battle field. Bellamy wanted to yell at her to take cover. She drew her sword, and plunged it into the soft earth _. “What the hell are we doing here? You swore an oath to fight for all mankind. Well look around you, we are mankind! We are Wonkru! If I kill you, I kill myself, and if we keep killing each other there won’t be anyone left to save. Our fight is over, Indra!”_

Indra was silent as both Bardoans and Wonkru turned to look at her. She pulled a sword out of a sheath by her leg (another one? Just how many did she have?) and lifted it high in the air. Then she tossed it away. It hit the ground with a clang, and Jasper whooped loudly.

The rest of Wonkru’s forces echoed the action, knives and spears and guns unceremoniously dropped as they followed her. One Eligius prisoner almost dropped a canon on his foot.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Indra warned, and Octavia sent her a look that quite clearly said _no shit_ as she turned to the deciples.

_“We’re unarmed. I know you’re afraid to walk away from everything you’ve spent your lives training for – I am too. My brother believed, as you do, that transcendence, whatever that means, is in reach.”_

Bellamy’s heart did a pathetic little skip at being called her brother again.

_“He died for that belief, and for that he’ll never get there. Never transcend. I don’t know what I believe, but I do know that if we fight this war we don’t deserve to find out if he was right. We don’t deserve to survive. We fail, we die.”_

_“She’s reaching them,”_ Raven said in wonder.

The crowd around the Rift in their afterlife had grown, stretching back as far as his eye could see. Bellamy knew that if he looked, he would find the face of everyone he had ever known. Everyone he had ever killed.

Monty and Jasper and Harper and Maya were clinging to each other. Lexa was leaning back into Anya, the two of them surrounded by a cluster of natblida children. Aden was standing vigil beside her.

_“I’ve been to war, and let me tell you – the only way to win is not to fight.”_

The Bardoans were not shooting.

His friends and family were cheering, screaming.

Octavia took off, dropping to her knees behind Levitt. He didn’t look like he was going to survive much longer.

 _“My speech,”_ he gasped, blood bubbling up from between his lips. His head lolled to the side.

 _“No! Stay with me, this does not end here.”_ Lincoln was pacing up and down, his hands clasped behind his head.

Maybe it was something about being dead himself now, but he knew the second that Echo’s heart stopped.

“Echo! No, no …” Hope sobbed.

 _“Pump her heart!”_ Octavia ordered. _“Do it now!”_ Hope climbed onto Echo so that she was straddling her and began to pump her heart.

Back on the field, the Bardoans were lowering their weapons, one by one. Bellamy hardly dared to breath.

_“For all mankind.”_

_“For all mankind.”_

_“For all mankind.”_

_“I told you, we can change,”_ Raven said. The Judge turned to her impassively. _“We just need more time.”_

Hope paused her compressions as Echo began to glow, emitting a hazy yellow sort of light.

Jasper squinted at it. “What the peebles is that?”

A smile broke across Bellamy’s face. “That’s what I saw in the cave. I think it’s transcendence. They did it.”

 _“What are you doing?”_ Octavia demanded. _“I said -”_ She stopped when she saw the light, her face turning from shock to wonder. Hope stepped away from Echo as the light got brighter, blazing through her from the inside out. Then there was nothing left of her but a blazing golden core, which drifted up through the treetops and out of sight.

“What the actual frickity fracking fuck?” whispered Diyoza.

 _“No pain,”_ wondered Levitt as he followed suit, glowing brightly and then simply floating away.

 _“Oh my god,”_ Jordan exclaimed, as he and Hope began to shimmer. _“This is what I saw when I was adjusted.”_ They joined hands, and a moment later they were gone too.

Octavia looked up at the sky, her warpaint-streaked face shining with tears. _“Bellamy was right.”_

She turned and rushed out back onto the battlefield. What was left of the two armies were staring around in wonder as the light overcame them. They vanished, one by one until Octavia was alone on the plain.

She began to glow, like her entire body had had been dipped in gold. And then she started floating, up up and away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't the best, I know. At this point I'm just trying to get it finished.  
> Comment anyway?  
> If you want any specific scenes between characters (dead or alive) lmk


	5. Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just fun stuff, kinda self indulgent. Featuring the rest of 7x16, Bellamy and Doucette reunion, Lincoln bouncing around being happy for Octavia, Diyoza and Gabriel plotting to get Hope and Echo together (those dumbasses need all the help they can get).

It had taken them a while to realise that Clarke wasn’t going to transcend. Abby had cursed the Judge to high heaven when she’d realised, as if she could somehow magic them down here so they could fight about it. Clarke though, had seemed resigned to it, watching Madi drift up and away through the ceiling.

_“I love you forever, Madi. Forever.”_

She tugged the helmet over her eyes and stepped through to Sanctum, calling out for Murphy and then Emori, but all that answered was a golden dog, barking and racing its way up to the balcony. Picasso.

Clarke seemed delighted by this, kneeling down and ruffling its fur as it yapped in her face.

Abby watched her, looking slightly alarmed. “Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s worried about how quickly Clarke just resigned herself to spending the rest of her life alone with a dog?”

“She doesn’t exactly look unhappy about it,” pointed out Jasper.

“Clarke would be happy enough getting tortured as long as her family was safe,” said Bellamy, annoyed. “That doesn’t mean she should do it.”

Like a compass always drawn to north, the next planet Clarke visited was Earth. Home. What Bellamy would have given to go back to Earth, just once more. It seemed only fitting her story should start and end there. As soon as they scrambled out the bunker, Picasso took off, hurtling through the forest. Clarke swore and followed her.

She met the Judge on the beach, and for a moment her face lit up at the sight of Lexa’s familiar face. Then she appeared to pull herself together and glared at them bitterly. The Judge didn’t seem to care, and they walked together down the beach.

 _“I bear it so they don’t have to,”_ Clarke said. _“Again.”_ He remembered her saying the exact same thing after Mount Weather, before walking away from Arkadia and him for three lonely months.

He didn’t know if he should be surprised that Clarke was the only person from any species since the dawn of goddamn time to ever commit murder during a test. He probably shouldn’t be.

He saw the moment Clarke heard Raven’s laughter and couldn’t help grinning. He glanced over at Lexa, who looked lighter than he’d ever seen her. Clarke sped up, rounding the corner of the beach. 

Raven, Emori, Murphy, Octavia, Levitt, Indra, Gaia, Jordan, Echo, Hope, Miller, Jackson, Niylah. They were all there. The smile that broke across Clarke’s face at the realisation that her family had passed on eternity to spend one lifetime with her was brighter than all the stars surrounding all the planets.

Murphy saw her first as he stood up to throw Picasso’s ball. _“Hey, there she is!”_

Clarke turned around one last time to say something to the Judge – Lexa – but she was gone. She began run, hugging Raven first and then Murphy. The three of them headed towards the others, arm in arm and beaming.

Bellamy would have given up anything to be there right then. But his sister was happy and so was Clarke, and that would have to be enough.

Clarke hugged Emori tightly and then Octavia and Echo, the group clustered together in a knot of carefree greetings and questions and love. The sun sank slowly behind the mountains, bathing the lake in orange and gold.

She was home.

He turned to look at Abby, and wasn’t surprised to see she was crying. He might have been crying himself. It was bittersweet, he thought, the life that had been taken from them so brutally. Abby held out her arms to him and he went straight into them, leaning into her quiet strength even though she was far shorter. One of the things he’d always envied about Clarke was her present, living mother, who loved her unconditionally.

He pulled away at last, wiping his eyes probably not so subtly on his sleeve. Behind him, his friends were in various states of celebration. Monty was wobbling on Jaspers shoulders, and Bellamy was sharply relieved that you couldn’t die twice because that was sure to only end badly. Harper and Maya were cheering them on, jumping smoothly out of the way when they lurched sideways and almost toppled.

Lincoln was skipping around, waving his arms at anyone who would listen. “Octavia has a boyfriend, Octavia has a boyfriend!”

Bellamy laughed shakily. “You’re really happy about that.”

He dropped his arms. “Well, of course I am! When I died, I wasn’t sure if she could come back from that. What the rest of you idiots told me basically confirmed it. But look at her now! Happy and in love again.”

“It is pretty great,” he admitted.

“It is.” Lincoln grabbed his arm and twirled him, and he promptly tripped over his own feet. He would have gone flying had Lincoln not caught him.

“You sure haven’t gotten any better at dancing, Bellamy,” Gina laughed.

Bellamy straightened. “That was not my dancing,” he said indignantly. “I’m a great dancer.”

Gina shot him a look that said quite plainly that she was above his bullshit, and he grinned. He’d missed her. The Iliad she gave him had been one of his most prized possessions.

“I need to find my mother,” he said. “Have you seen her? Her names Aurora.”

Gina shook her head. “Go look for her. But you and I have gotta talk later, okay?”

He nodded. “Definitely. We have all the time in the world.” He successfully ducked around the Monty and Jasper tower, dodging Finn and Kane. In another life he could definitely have been a great gymnast.

“Hello, my friend.”

Bellamy recognised the voice instantly, and his stomach dropped to somewhere around his knees. “Doucette?”

He turned slowly, already knowing what he’d see. The other man’s sandy reddish hair and beard were carefully trimmed, and the symbols across his face etched as carefully as ever.

“I see now,” Doucette said. “What you said about your people. Seeing your sister and the other one stop the end … I see what you meant about them being what was real. Our cause was true, but we cut out something good and important from our lives. I just thought I should tell you that.”

Seeing the conductor again stirred up a lot of the old guilt of betrayal, but what had happened hadn’t been Doucette’s fault. He’d offered something, and Bellamy had needed to believe in it even when it hurt the best and closest people to him.

“C’mere,” Bellamy muttered, tugging him into a rough hug which he returned enthusiastically. He got the feeling the disciples weren’t very affectionate, and that this was one touch starved son of a bitch. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too.” Doucette cleared his throat awkwardly. “So um, most of the other disciples are over there.” He jerked a thumb behind him. “You should come and join us, if you want.”

Bellamy thought about it. “No, thank you. I think I want to spend my afterlife with my family. But I’d love to drop by sometimes and see you all though, if that’s okay with you.”

Doucette smiled. “Of course it is. We’d be glad to have you any time. There is a lot we could probably learn from you. Until then, I guess.” He waved awkwardly and ambled off, back to the other Bardoans.

“Until then, my friend.”

Bellamy set off again, winding through the people. Many he recognised, but he didn’t stop to chat. It wasn’t long though, until he got distracted by another diversion in the form of Charmain Diyoza. He needed to thank her properly for everything she’d done for Octavia.

She was with Gabriel, hunched over a table strewn with paper. Gabriel was gesturing animatedly, pointing to different notes and diagrams, and Diyoza was watching shrewdly. They seemed like an unlikely pair to be plotting together.

“What are you doing?” Bellamy asked, leaning over to peer at their work.

“We’re trying to think of a way to get Echo and Hope together,” Gabriel told him with a grin.

“But what about Jordan?” Bellamy asked dumbly.

Diyoza waved a hand dismissively. “I’m sure he’s a good kid, but he and Hope have only known each other for like a week. And it isn’t like my daughter has known enough people to separate romantic and platonic attraction.”

“I lived with Echo and Hope for five years,” Gabriel put in. “It was like living with a disgustingly enamoured married couple. Heart eyes, weird constant touching and flirting, the whole shebang. So we need to get them to stop being oblivious and do something about it. You don’t mind, do you? You were Echo’s boyfriend.”

Bellamy shook his head, bemused. “Of course not. I just want her to be happy.”

“Good,” Diyoza said. “We would have done it anyway though, we don’t really care about you.”

“You do care about me, I’m your closest friend’s brother.” He pulled up another chair and scanned their haphazard notes. “I hate to point this out, but all three of us are dead. How to you expect to put any of these in action?”

Diyoza and Gabriel exchanged a look. “We’re working on that.”

“You mean it’s not possible.”

Gabriel pointed a finger at him. “You know, a couple of centuries ago it would have been said that immortality wasn’t possible, but me and Russel said hold my beer and now here I am. You wanna read some of our stuff?”

Bellamy shrugged, pulling the nearest sheet of paper towards him. His eyebrows rose higher there more he read. There seemed to be a lot about tricking Hope and Echo into winding up lost in the woods together for long enough that they’re forced to confront their feelings, and even more about the best way to burn Hope’s tent down so she was forced to share with Echo.

“I’m not quite sure that this is going to work, you guys,” he said tactfully.

“Of course it will,” Diyoza said dismissively. “Ye of little faith.”

“We are both ancient people born way back before the bombs that destroyed earth the first time,” Gabriel added. “Our knowledge is limitless. We can both fluently quote memes and tiktok, can you?” 

“I have no idea what that is,” Bellamy said. “But I can quote Shakespeare, is that similar?”

Gabriel laughed and Diyoza slammed her head on the table dramatically. “No.”

Bellamy was confused, so he shrugged. “I’ll leave you two to your weird outdated memes, then. Before I interrupted your Echo and Hope plot I was on a quest to find my mom.”

“Oh, I saw her earlier,” Gabriel said, stopping laughing with effort. “She went that way.” He pointed him in the right direction.

Bellamy thanked him and moved on. Aurora Blake wasn’t difficult to find. She was sitting on her own, her face propped up on her hand as she stared out at nothing.

He approached her hesitantly. “Mom?”

She looked up at him and smiled lightly. “My boy.”

He returned the smile and sat down next to her, leaning his head onto her shoulder. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. Bellamy sighed, content.

The afterlife was a watery comparison to really being alive, but he thought that maybe he didn’t hate it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I left space for one more chapter for the clexa reunion, which will be told from Lexa's POV.  
> Also I was reminded that Diyoza is a millennial and also of that scene in season 7 where Cadogan and Gabriel were talking about memes and I found that hella funny. They both are canonically at the right age that they lived through covid, do what you will with that information. Anyway I love the idea of them being freinds.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are my lifeblood please comment  
> if anyone has any requests for who they want bellamy to have scenes with let me know and i'll write them


End file.
